Meteor spotted in Colorado sky was unusually slow

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Astronomers said a fireball that streaked across the Colorado sky had an unusually long path and was moving surprisingly slowly for a meteor.

John Keller, director of the Fiske Planetarium, said the fireball that sparked dozens of reports to the American Meteor Society on Friday night was a bollide, a particularly large meteorite.

Chris Peterson, an astronomer with the Cloudbait Observatory, said his instruments tracked the meteor's path from Steamboat, Colo., to the New Mexico border. He told CBS Denver that it's "unusual" for a meteor's "path to be that long."

Peterson said the meteor might have bounced off the atmosphere and headed back into space, or it may have burned up completely. He said the meteor was estimated to be traveling about 60,000 miles per hour, which he said is unusually slow for a fireball.

Peterson said he does not believe it likely that any fragments of the meteor made contact with earth.